Busker Paul Pass would have been “utterly terrified” in the moments before he was murdered in his Gloucester flat, a court heard.

Four teenagers, three from the city and one from London, are on trial accused of various offences related to the murder of the 49-year-old at his flat in Marian Court, off Archdeacon Street, on October 7 last year.

Summing up the prosecution’s case today at Bristol Crown Court, barrister Adam Vaitilingam said: “We say it was a sustained and vicious incident that left Paul Pass quite defenceless and undoubtedly utterly terrified in his own home.

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He invited the jury to imagine how terrified the two men were as they were beaten by the men who had, earlier that day, kidnapped them and forced them to walk across Gloucester city centre to Mr Pass’ flat.

Mr Vaitilingam said Islam was a man “with a history of violence and a bad temper”.

He said he and Abdulmalik Adua, 17, of Woolwich, London, became increasingly angry as they realised they were not going to get their money and drugs back.

Marian Court in Westgate, Gloucester where Paul Pass lived

The trial previously heard the pair blamed Mr Pass for a robbery at the flat, when their drugs and £1,500 in cash were stolen.

That led them to find Mr Pass, who often played guitar in the city as a busker, and Mr Andrews and frogmarch them to the property before punching them and stabbing them with knives.

Mr Vaitilingam said that as Islam and Adua acted together and intended to cause serious harm, they were both guilty of murdering Mr Pass and causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Andrews.

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Defending Adua, Benjamin Aina QC said he was a “softly spoken gentle giant” with no convictions for violence, who made a mistake in getting involved in the evil trade of drug dealing.

While Adua had admitted causing harm to Mr Pass by stabbing him in the leg, he had not intended to cause serious bodily harm, he said, and pointed out that he rebuked Islam for stabbing him in the hand too firmly.

He added that Adua tried to stem the blood flow from Mr Pass’ leg by applying a tourniquet to it.

He said: “He’s a youngster, he’s 17. He’s not medically trained, he’s doing his best to do what he thought was the right thing before he left the flat.”

Mr Aina added: “His use of the knife was terrible. It led to devastating consequences.

“But there was no way that young man was intending to cut the artery of Paul Pass’ leg.”